Log Book
2024 Log Book
April 5
Location Bridal.
Very nice condition for Jeremy, Donovan and others today with most pilots flying for as long as they wanted. In my case my hands got too cold after about two hours.
No spare driver today, so after about 4 attempts I managed a soft I top landing and drove my truck directly to the Wild Cat.
March 30,31
Location Bridal.
This weekend was dedicated to Donovan, he needed just a few move good landings and endure my infamous Titanic Maneuver. In the end a new P2 Deimosian was born.
Also, I got to test fly my new Alti harness. The conditions were pretty nice and I managed a 3 hr flight. The next step is to get it tested and start selling them. The Deimos Alti is probably the lightest
reversible (airbag) harness available (7lbs / 3.18 kg).
March 17
Location Bridal.
Today was Ludo's last chance to pass the Deimos/HPAC P3 Course. There was many SIV maneuvers to complete, and three spot landings.
The final Ludo maneuver was a B-Line stall, followed up with one last spot landing (no pumping allowed).
in the end - he passed!
Donovan also had a nice low save and did his first spiral dive maneuver.
Tip of the day: if you can't hear anyone on your radio, it's probably needs to moved to the correct frequency or he volume turned up. Don't wait to after you land to fix it.
March 17
Location Bridal. We arrived to see a clear blue sky, however the wind was still East, so I made Brad, Ludo, Donavan and my newest students Adrian and Christina do some kiting and tandem inflations.
After a couple of hours the wind died down so we headed up to Bridal Launch. A few downed trees, needed to be moved and some low branches. On launch there was about 6" snow remaining, so easy to slip and fall if you were not careful. Alan D went first and sunk out, followed by Ludo, Brad and myself on tandem. We all had about 15-20 minute flights.
We all had great landings but the Katabatic air around the LZ made our landings more interesting.
Round two offered a little more lift and a more stable landings. Ludo needs just another day or two to finish the Deimos / HPAC P3 course.
Feb 23
Woodside: Donovan, Ludo went first landing at Riverside, while Donovan landed at the Dykes.
Second flights were a little stronger, so I flew as well landing at the Dykes, followed by just Donovan.
Ludo managed the longest flight at about 1.5 hrs.
Feb 14
Another fun afternoon at Diefenbaker park. Always a good idea to practice after no flying for many months.
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2023 Log Book
Nov 14
Woodside: Donovan, Tim- Donovan went first, followed by Tim and I on Tandem. Donovan managed 25 minutes.
A bit too katabatic to fly a second tandem.
Oct 20 - 22
Savona: Tim, Brandon, and Wally managed a couple of flights, some into the Toilet bowl and others into the parking lot. Just before dark, I tired to launch near my my RV but the katabatic wind was a little too strong.
Oct 8
A fun day forecasted: a tandem with Tiona (Brad) and Sara (tc); and Donavan with some easy SIV maneuvers. The light east wind meant that we really needed to run fast to take off and landing.
Sept 22
High Flight with my newest student Tim and spent 3 to 4 hours kiting in Agassiz.
Sept 16
After landing at the Dykes, we witnessed a motor crashing at high speed, so we dropped everything and ran to help. The rider was 100m from his bike so I figured that he was badly injured. Two lady's were working on what looked like a compounded fracture, so Donovan and I were managing the traffic with our radios. At one point I jumped in front of a truck speeding down the hill and barely stop before hitting the emergency crew and other cars - a good thing we were there!
Next we headed to Bridal only to be turned back due to a road closure. Back at Woodside the traffic was stopped for a heli-landing probably due to the rider health declining quickly. Back on take off, we got a flat tire so another problem to add to the list.
Fixed the tire, so time to fly? Nope, a pilot just crashed right of take off, so off we went to help.
I tried to climb the tree, but after 20 feet up I realized I was too slow so Rob we called 911 again.
Finally we all flew and then caught meal at the Sasquatch.
Sept
hike and almost fly off Cheam Pk (too windy)
July 28 Chief
July 23 Bridal
July 17 Blanchard
July 2 Bridal Falls x2
July 1 Bridal Falls/Woodside
June 26 Bridal Falls/Woodside x3
June 24 Bridal Falls/Woodside x2
May 20 Bridal Falls/Woodside,
Too windy for high flights (+ 30 kph) so Donovan and I did tones of forward and reverse launches with great improvements. Later we headed over to Woodside for some rock climbing and more kiting at Bridal LZ. At one point we told that a helicopter was landing there in the next 5 minutes so that ended the lessons.
They ended up hauling four SAR personal on a long line towards upper Bridal launch to help with an injured hiker about the clouds.
May 20 Bridal Falls,
We managed three rounds of flying in nice conditions. I flew with Corina, followed by Ross and finally with my newest student Donovan. In tow was Brad on tandem with Stefany, Ludo and JC (insisting that he must hike up), and about 6 others including Will T. The winds picked up after 4pm making our last launch (and landing) rather tricky. Ludo went XC and was slowly walking back from Elk, while JC was still hanging out at 1000m. On our flight, Donovan and I did lots of mini SIV maneuvers to prepare him for more future solo flights like wing over wing over counter counter, going just over the falls, wing over wing over 360....
May Burnaby Mt,
Rather nice conditions at Burnaby Mt for Kale and Donovan. Lots of people watching and waiting for the sunset. After Kale clipped a tree due to fixation, I decided to call it a day.
May 6,7 Whidbey Island,
Light conditions allowed Cabrinha to fly her first three solo flights.
April 29 Bridal,
Great conditions today - I had a full truck on the first ride up. Ludo went first and was below the above then below launch - so I just hung and waited for Cale to arrive.
We had a great flight getting to 1239m with a max +4m/s lift. Ludo save us a hike up when he made his first top landing - congrats.
April 15 Savona,
Strong conditions for most of the day (>25 mph), but late afternoon it settle down to about 17-20 mph - just about right for me to play. Eventually it was Cale's turn to fly solo. He managed two flights before it got too dark.
April 14 Bridal Falls,
Epic day flying around Cheam Peak (with JW). Managed a nice top landing then headed down to meet Cale for his first high flight. We managed about 1/2 hour with great soaring conditions. I've been training with Cale for a few weeks now so he is ready for his first solo flights this weekend.
March 26 2023 Diefenbaker
Day 3 for Cale and his Solo V course
A great day at Diefenbaker (Ludo, Will, JW and myself). Jeremy was tuning up his tandem skills with first Will then Ludo and Cale. Plan A was to finish the day with high flights at Woodside, but Diefenbaker was so much fun we decided to just stay here. More training and highs coming soon!
Trip to Savona planned for Easter Weekend April 8,9 and 10th.
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Aug 12 Woodside
Tandem flights (Angela, Mary, Misie, Cindy, Amber and Raf)
Aug 11 Woodside
High flights with Tonya's group (Erika, Emrik, Gerry and Phil)
July 10 Woodside
Very nice conditions in Agassiz for Steven to learn the (Deimos) forward and reserve launches. It takes a bit of extra practice to "master" my launch, but then you are guaranteed to be one of the top launching pilots in the Fraser Valley.
After a few hours we headed up to Woodside - once on launch there were mostly tandem pilots setting up (Rod, Tonya) (something new for me since Flybc moved their business - no queue of new students). Steven and I had and very nice launch, but due to our high weight we had a hard time climbing in the light condition and eventually flew to the Dykes. A few more sessions and Steven will be flying solo!
July 2 Woodside
New student Stephen start my Solo V course. We went to the Dykes to check out the wind and it seemed like it was blown out so we practiced our reverse kiting instead. JC showed up a little later, so after Stephen left for dinner date, we headed up to launch - surprising light conditions so I offered that JC goes first and if he goed up I would also fly then (hopefully) top land. In the end only JC flew - he reported high windys in the Dyke LZ - weird day.
July 1 Bridal
We spent the day at Bridal doing tandems - first with ludo's new friend, then with the Hayot brothers.
Sadly my passenger filmed Ludo doing his biggest spiral, but our angle did not capture his flight.
June - Whidbey Island
Again pretty windy, so you can fly but had to be careful about the upper winds.
May - Whidbey Island
A little too windy for JW so we practiced tandem launches for a few hours. Eventually only myself and another local pilot got to fly. You had to be careful: if you got over 100' AGl you would start to fly backwards.
May 6 - Savona
I joined in the Flybc recert course. Some classroom time and a few moments of high wind soaring.
Jeremy and I tried a tandem flight flight with mixed results. Jim and I shook after he announced that I will be getting my Senior Tandem / Instructor rating.
April 24 - Bridal Falls
This was my first tandem of 2022 and Cabrinha's 3rd.
I did not check my lines well enough and we had a small cravat (Alex R yelled stop which really help with my last minute decision to stop). There was another pilot on launch and said nothing. I really wish we could all team up and check our launches. We did one touch and go and then headed in to the LZ (after about a two hr flight).
April 23 - Whidbey Island
JW and I headed to the USA - this first time since forever it seems. We did a few hours of tandem practice and then around 5 pm the west wind arrived.
My first flight ended at the beach after about 5 minutes (should have top landed when I had the chance). Then after a quick hike up, it was blowing 15-18 mph - so a little tricky to manage the inflation but overall pretty fun.
Start of 2022 Flights
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End of 2021 flights
Oct 1
Today was Chris's day - his first solo flight. We started at 9:30 at Diefenbaker with light east wind and yoga girls (something new?). At 10:30 it was time to go. I decided on Woodside because of the easy landing conditions at the Dykes. Peter, Claudia, Karen and a few others were already thermalling, while Dennie, Chris and a few others on launch waited for the west wind. Chris had a couple of practice launches then it was time for the real one. A good start but he was unsure what to do when he was just one foot in the air and went full stall instead of brake left. Round two was just as exciting when he flew off with 90% full brakes. I quickly launched but suddenly three out of five radios crapped out - but I eventually connected with him and the landing instructor. Some confusion on where the LZ was, but in the end Chris had a soft landing. As usual Wildcat beers to celebrate.
Sept 25
Nice east conditions at Deifenbaker this morning. This time Chris, Laura and Wil t made the drive out.
looks like Laura won for best glide; but Chris got a couple of 5/5 flights so he is ready for his first high flight.
Sept 23
Nice east conditions at Diefenbaker this morning. Ty managed quite a few little training flights as is now ready for his high flight.
On aside note: after many years, JC finally wrote and passed the P2 Exam and now has his rating!
Who's next?
check out my new web site: nexebike.com
Sept 12
Brad had a group of five so Denie join us. We had to wait for a couple of hours while the rain passed - no problem cause we were still enjoying lunch at the Wildcat. After 3pm we headed up - probably a bit early - still lots of South wind. The South wind paused for more than 20 minutes so I went first with Cole. Denie had some issues with the rain so wisely rolled up for the day. On round two, I went first again with Brandon and saw a very small rainbow forming near the low cliff. However, by the time Brad launched it was now a full rainbow, but to brad it looked like a full circle just a 100m ahead of him - he has it on video - wild stuff - very rare! Check back here later for a link to the video.
Sept 11
A couple of tandems with Valerie and Shin (Brad helped - Chris drove). Then one more time with Chris (brad drove).
Aug 29
Spent the day at Woodside - two tandems for me with Roger and Adam; while Eoin, JC and Ludo got the best flights of the day climbing to just over 3000' agl. Some very interesting landings when none of them could follow my simple instructions. Finished at the Wildcat where I had to eat a Thai salad (waitress got my order wrong) - perhaps it my Toronto accent confusing everyone.
Aug 28
Tandem with Padro's son off Bridal at 9am, then two more with Ryse and Tim at Woodside.
Aug 21
Brad, Derek and I did a couple of tandems off Woodside. We needed to wait a couple of hours until we could see the ground. Eventually Christian and I launched first, but we were a bit early and went it into the white room a couple of times. My second flight was with Anita - another more or less sled ride with a 30' straight drop into the LZ. I flared hard to ease the impact which mostly worked, but then the wind caught us and started to drag us a couple of feet - so I released the riser. Fun times. Derek made my day with a free grapefruit beer to end the flying for the day. (to stay legal, you must wait 8hrs per beer).
Aug 14
New student Chris, along with Ludo and JC enjoyed three rounds of flying, with JC being the only one to get above launch. Woodside was blown out apparently so Bridal was the place to be.
Aug 11
Shane W. and I had a great tandem at Bridal for about 1/2 hour getting to about 500' over. At close to 500lbs it was hard to climb out. Too bad he is from Alberta, he would have made a great pilot if he could join my school.
Thanks to JC, I have a couple of new students starting next week. More updates coming soon.
July 24
Spent the day at Woodside hoping to do multiple tandems. I managed one solo flight and fun tandem with Randy, but by 1pm it blew out.
Pretty scary conditions if you have low hours or taking your first solo flight (at noon).
Tip of the day:
Always keep in mind that you if you manage to launch, you still need to handle the turbulence and make it all the way to the LZ. When it becomes windy, make sure you know how to handle a collapse and use your speedbar.
July 18
Great conditions for our tandems (Chi and William) getting about 45-60 min flights.
July 17
Brad got stung in the face, and was forced to sit out all flights. In the end I only had to do one tandem.
Jeremy and I headed over to WS for one more flight but the wind was too unpredictable so we chose to not fly. Unfortunately Wali did not get a chance to fly his new harness.
July 2
Nice conditions today allowed Ludo to get two long flights and his P2 rating. Congrats! Another Deimosian has been released into the wild. I managed a very short flight and top landed just five minutes after launch so I could keep my 5:30 meeting.
July 5
I was hoping to get a few flights in today with Ludo and Bill so he could get his P2 rating - but in the end it was too windy.
July 2
It was JW, and Sanjeet today at Bridal.
In the end, Sanjeet and I flew twice, while JW decided to help with the driving instead of dealing with the lee side conditions.
June 26
My newest student Sanjeet started today at Garry Pt.
A bit too hot, but nice steady wind. The nest step is a few flights at Diefenbaker. JC also helped until is was time for more drinks and ice cream.
June 22
JC was nice enough to take the afternoon off to help with one tandem flight (Kaitlin from Ontario).
Strong conditions when we arrive, so we did a little landscaping to make top landings a little safer. Our tandem flight was about an hour long, and JC wisely elected to call it a day. Thanks JC for your help.
June 19
A couple of flights from Woodside (Ludo and JC), then over to Bridal for more adventures. Ludo needs just one more flight for his P2 rating.
June 17
Ludo and JC were rock stars today.
We started with a couple of sled rides mixed with baby acro, but it was the second flights that were full of action.
Ludo (solo) and I went first, followed by JC. We quickly climbed to about 3200' then headed out for more SIV stuff then we both got flushed to the lz in just a few minutes. Degas reported this (new?) weather pattern a few week ago - wired stuff. JC, by launching later, managed a low save then made it up to upper launch. On our third round, Ludo (solo) and I focused on lots of SIV manuvers including front collapse. Ludo, on the U-Turn Eternity, found that the frontal recovery was rather boring.
Alan's brother Bill was kind enough to drive my truck so I got an extra flight in today (and top landing).
JC finally landed after 2.5 hours - mostly because I had to get going.
New technology:
Today we were testing out my new 2-way intercom system - quite amazing - it's was like I was on a tandem with Ludo - chatting back and forth.
Congrats to Deimosian Jonathan P on his recent 255km XC flight in Alberta - almost a Canadian record I hear.
June 1
A private lesson day for Ludo, with two solo flights followed by a 2:10 hr tandem flight including two SAT attempts and wing over timing and spiral entry and exit lessons. No hiking needed thanks to Alex R.
May 30
Tandem flight with my daughter Cabrinha from lower McKenzie, followed by a nice hike up the new trail.
May 24
Two flights from Woodside for JC and Ludo, then met up with Wally for more adventures at Bridal.
May 21
Tandem flights with my oldest daughter Miranda and her boy friend Keaton. We were able to do some XC flying but a little too windy to be enjoyable - so we landed after about 45 mins.
May 16
An early start for Bridal, with Ludo and JC today.
Still light conditions, and lots of pilots on top, so we waited until a more senior pilot launched.
Bev was the wind tester of the day, after an interesting launch, she slowly started climbing. Since Ludo had some great practice launches he was up next. Soon Ludo and other pilots were above launch. I hung around to help JC launch (his new U-Turn Infinity), then also joined in the fun on my Blacklite2. After about 1.5 hours it was time for Ludo to land – he did a great job despite dropping his new radio somewhere before landing. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to top land, came close (30’) a couple of times but decided it was probably too dangerous and headed out to the LZ.
Hitch a ride back up and decided to break for dinner with Will, Laura and Karen at the Wildcat.
Ludo was still excited for another flight so we headed up for one more flight.
Super fun day.
May 9
An interesting day at Bridal. Lots of spectators and five hang gliders (very rare).
As usual Alan went first followed by Ludo. I drove down right away so as to help with the landing - not much help needed this time.
Round two was when the action started. The launch was in heavy wind shadow mode, making it very tricky to get a solid wing. One pilot had some bad air and subsequently found himself about 30 feet down over the edge. With the help of Wil and others, we were able to pull himself and myself quickly back up to safety. Some pilots were flushed to the LZ in just a couple of minutes while others flew to Butterfly and back. While we waited, Ludo wrote the P2 exam and passed it. At 6:30 it seemed like conditions were not going to change, so I launch. Windy but smooth conditions.
Time for bed...
May 2
While we waited for conditions to improve, JW and I worked on the steps and the harness hanger - two more steps added!
Alan went first just to show that it was time to fly. It was a little too light still so I asked Ludo to get ready for a solo flight, but within 20 minutes it quickly went to P3 or more. Time for tandem flight number 6. We had an great flight towards Gloria then down to Butterfly and back. I was not in the mood to hike up so we spent more than half an hour trying to top land. We hit quite a few -4 to -6 m/s mixed with +5 m/s - so instead we headed in to the LZ. Laura was nice enough to drive a few of us back up.
April 29
Another great day at Bridal. The plan today was to take Roman on his first flight, and watch Ludo take his tenth solo flight. The wind techs were Martin and Alan - they both went up, so time for Ludo's launch.
Perfect forward launch (on the U-Turn Eternity).
We landed after 30+ minutes and watch Ludo's landing (slightly long). Fun stuff!
April 27
Another private lesson for Ludo. Great conditions at Diefenbaker today, allowing many little flights
April 21
A private lesson for my newest student Roman. Hopefully a tandem flight or two this Saturday?
April 20
Another great day Bridal: if you could endure +7m/s you too could hang out at 7000' agl! For Ludo and I we were hanging out at 3000' in +2.5 m/s lift.
Ludo managed two flights with lots of Deimos challenges completed.
April 16
Finally, after almost six months we were able to take Karolina and her beautiful friends flying. Jeremy helped with a little ground schooling while we waited for the west wind. I thought, because of covid, it would be a good idea to have the girls ride up in the back; but instead they all felt a bit motion sick. All three passengers, even with an hour plus wait, still felt ill in the air. Andrei did a fine job on his launch while Jeremy drove the down to save Andrei from driving up later – great team work – thanks JW!
I had my next two tandem flights ready to go for flights 5 and 6. Chris was a solid 270 lbs and did great on our tandem – we managed about ½ hour in light conditions. To end of the day, I flew Zach (son of Chris) and we managed about 20 minutes and some acro to polish off the day.
I have some big renews at home so can only do some training hill work on Sunday. Please sign up if you are interested.
April 11
We (Pam and Ludo) started the day at 11am with a couple hours of kiting in light east wind. Around 1:15
Fedja, JW, JP and a few others showed up so it was time to head up Bridal. We missed Alan’s and Martin’s launches but apparently, they were climbing out nicely to the east. It seemed like we had a rare convergence day so lots of lift over the LZ. Both Pam and Ludo had solid launches - after about 20 minutes I asked Pam and Ludo to start heading towards the LZ in light NW wind. Ludo did great on his landing but Pam choose to set up a little too far back and struggled with my radio commands and landed short. Shortly after Pam landed, conditions start to switch to NE and the experienced XC pilots needed to quickly come up with a plan B that did not require big wing overs – most did quite well. Claudia was still hoping to relaunch and fly back to Woodside, however, I felt that the conditions were too difficult for further flights and probably best to simply head home. Due to Pam’s landing, I was pretty tired at this time and felt it was a good time to call it a day (no flights for me this time).
April 5 - Finally nice conditions at Bridal today.
Many pilots out today 95% from Deimos - nice to see.
Ludo had his second solo flight and was able to maintain his height to a max of 500 ' above launch.
I was his wing man and forced to do BE to stop him from getting too high. After about 30 minutes it seemed like it was getting less thermic and more windy so I ordered Ludo to land. The risky pilots decided to fly east while the rest went west - usually the best option when it becomes windy at Bridal.
April 4
I was worried that it would get too strong so we started at 9am (Bridal). Even though there were good west cycles JC still had >3m/s sink and weird winds in the LZ to add to his excitement. In short not for students, so we headed down to do some kiting. Second flights were very spicy and many pilots got high fast but also landed about 1 hr later. Ludo and I headed to the sun eastward but landed shortly.
I had some major pain in my pre-molar and raced home to try and find some meds. Nothing was working so my dentist offer her services at 8pm and did a quick root canal. What a relief!
My dentist confirm that a rapid descent can aggravate a sensitive tooth.
March 31
A few eager pilots out today, but the East wind made our day a little harder.
Sam went first and showed us it was possible followed by Derek, Martin, Nichole, Ludo and I and finally Alan. I decided to fly East for a change and had a shorter walk back to the truck (driven by Kyle - hiker). Thanks all.
Next flying day planned is Sunday (Bridal/Woodside).
March 30 Bridal then Woodside
The one hour practice in Agassiz paid off : because Ludo aced his first solo launch and had a super soft landing.
Around 3:30, pilots were falling out of the sky all around Agassiz - so we headed over to the LZ to see who needed a ride . I offered to drive Degas and Yasik up to launch, and in return D-man offered to drive my new RAM. At about 5 pm, I thought it was getting a bit too late to climb up, but thankfully Ludo and I had a great tandem flight, getting to about 1500' above launch.
Hopefully tomorrow we will go on a nice XC flight!
March 27 Diefenbaker
Epic conditions for myself, Ludo and Jeremy W.
I had a couple of straight up moments that had me nervous because I would have needed speed bar.
Ludo is ready for his first solo flight - probably this week.
March 16 Bridal Falls
My good friend OV generously offered to drive today, however before I could meet up with the group,
I needed to pick up a radio left on launch from last week, and Alan D (his car was sick).
I gave Alan a one hour head start on his hike up, while I quizzed Pam and Ludo on glide ratio and sink rates. We arrive just in time to watch Alan’s launch attempt and eventually his launch.
Pam did great on her practice launches and her real launch. With the increase in air density, Ludo and I had a very rare two step take off in light conditions. We managed to maintain our height for some time but eventually sank out. Meanwhile Alan enjoyed the cool air at 1100m – typical.
Laura and Ernie showed up later but she too had a hard time getting above launch, even with her new wing.
U-turn reports the following wings in stock:
Infinity 5 size S is available in Color 1, 2 and 3
Crossrock size S is available in Color 2 and 3
Eternity size S is available in Color 1, 4 and 5
Infinity 5 size M is available in Color 1 (Color 2 and 3 will be available in around 4 weeks again)
Crossrock size M in Color 1 and 2
Eternity size M is available in Color 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (please note that Colors 1-3 are no longer being produced, only Colors 4, 5 and 6).
Bridal Road Condition: we were able to drive all the way up today.
March 13 Diefenbaker
Training at Diefenbaker with Pam JW and JC.
March 12 Bridal Falls
Light east wind in the Bridal LZ so new student Ludo, JC and JW did a little kiting while we waited. After 45 minutes it was time to head up.
Switchy conditions so Ludo and I went first followed by JW. JC offered to drive that that made it easy (no hiking needed). We had about 1hr in smooth air and JW had about 25 minutes.
Road condition:
My new truck has street tires so we had to stop on the last icy steep section and hike the last 10 minutes.
The snow should be gone in a week or so.
Feb 24 Woodside
Degas said he is not into hiking and snowy launches so we headed to Woodside (instead of Bridal with 8" just on launch. A good call, already a half dozen above launch.
I join them until my fingers got too cold then top landed. After about ten minutes pilots were dropping below launch so I felt it best to just drive down and hopefully get to play with my squash friends at 5.
If you wish to know what's up each week - please check out the web page link: